The global positioning system (GPS) is a military system developed by the United States Department of Defense. Since 2000, GPS access has been made available to civilians. Mostly, the GPS was used in the United States of America and in western countries, and recently, it has begun to be used in all countries of the world. The GPS is used in various application fields such as sailing maps of vessels, navigation devices of vehicles, mobile phones (smart phones) providing position information services, etc.
Most mobile terminals providing position information services are configured to use the GPS. Therefore, a GPS patch antenna is mounted in a mobile terminal to receive signals in the frequency band of about 1576 MHz, which is the frequency band of the GPS. For example, the GPS patch antenna is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-1105443 (title: ceramic patch antenna using GPS), Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0326365 (title: GPS patch antenna for improving axial ratio and return loss), etc.
In the meantime, the global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) was developed by Russia to compete with the GPS of the U.S.A. Like the GPS, GLONASS was also initially used for military purposes. However, recently, access to GLONASS has also been made available to civilians, and is now also applied to various application fields. GLONASS is composed of fewer satellites than that of the GPS, but provides more precise position information than the GPS. Thus, GLONASS is being increasingly used. Therefore, mobile terminals having GLONASS antennas to provide position information services using GLONASS are becoming increasingly popular.
Generally, GPS or GLONASS use is selectively determined according to countries. Thus, mobile terminal manufacturers manufacture mobile terminals by selectively mounting GPS antennas or GLONASS antennas according to countries where the mobile terminals are used.
When selectively mounting a GPS antenna or a GLONASS antenna in one mobile terminal, manufacturing lines should be separated. Such separation causes an increase in manufacturing costs of mobile terminals. Therefore, manufacturers are developing mobile terminals capable of using both the GPS and GLONASS.
A conventional GPS patch antenna is configured to receive signals in the frequency band of about 1576 MHz, and thus it is impossible to receive GLONASS signals which are about 1602 MHz.
Therefore, in order to manufacture mobile terminals capable of using both the GPS and GLONASS, it is required to mount a GPS antenna and a GLONASS antenna together.
However, recently, mobile terminals are reduced in size due to demands from the market and users. Thus, there are numerous design limitations in simultaneously mounting the GPS antenna and the GLONASS antenna, and costs of mobile terminals increase.